Virology
Viral supercomputer simulations
By Vincent Racaniello
Jason Roberts, a virologist at the Victorian Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia, creates three-dimensional simulations of viruses showing how the molecules that make up the capsid and genome might move in very short periods of time. I visited Jason in his laboratory at the newly constructed Peter Doherty Institute, ...
TWiV 323: A skid loader full of viromes
By Vincent Racaniello
On episode #323 of the science show This Week in Virology, the family TWiVidae discuss changes in the human fecal virome associated with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. You can find TWiV #323 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Detecting prions by quaking and shaking
By Vincent Racaniello
The human prion disease, Creutzfeld-Jacob, is diagnosed by a variety of criteria, including clinical features, electroencephalograms, and magnetic resonance imaging. Until recently there was no non-invasive assay to detect PrPSc, the only specific marker for the disease. This challenge has been overcome using amplification procedures to detect Creutzfeldt-Jakob prions in nasal ...
TWiV 322: Postcards from the edge of the membrane
By Vincent Racaniello
On episode #322 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVodes answer listener email about hantaviruses, antivirals, H1N1 vaccine and narcolepsy, credibility of peer review, Bourbon virus, influenza vaccine, careers in virology, and much more. You can find TWiV #322 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Infectious agents with no genome
By Vincent Racaniello
If the reader does not believe that viroids and satellites are distinctive, then surely prions, infectious agents composed only of protein, must impress. The question of whether infectious agents exist without genomes arose with the discovery and characterization of infectious agents associated with a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform ...
